On March 20, 2026, The First Symposium on Indigenous Philosophy across the Americas: Epistemologies and Ontologies outside of Settler Colonial Hegemony brought together more than 300 participants from across the Americas and other continents, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. This event marked a historic milestone in the dialogue, serious discussion, and visibility of philosophical reflections rooted in indigenous philosophies in American academia, where the Western philosophical perspective is commonly dominant.

The event was hybrid. At its peak, it had 40 active attendees in-person from different universities in the Philadelphia area and more than 70 participants via Zoom. Attendees came from countries across the Americas and the Caribbean, as well as from other continents. These countries included the United Kingdom, the Philippines, India, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Japan, Indonesia, Burkina Faso, Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Serbia, Pakistan and the Netherlands.

The event began with a ritual. Blessing Mother Earth, rivers, springs, lakes and other beings of nature is an important part of Indigenous philosophy. Over one intense day, talks and a roundtable discussion engaged the attendees, who came from many different fields and disciplines. Some were Indigenous, some were non-Indigenous. They included undergraduate students, graduate students, professors, affiliated researchers, and independent researchers. Most knew the topic well. Others were simply interested in learning more about Indigenous Philosophy.

The symposium was organized by the Department of Philosophy at Temple University, the Quechua Language and Culture Program of the Penn Language Center at the University of Pennsylvania (Quechua at Penn) and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Their institutional and financial support was fundamental to making this First Symposium possible. Both universities have previously organized events on world philosophies that include Indigenous perspectives. However, this symposium sought to demonstrate the distinct merit and standalone significance of Indigenous philosophies across the Americas.

This gathering celebrated the ontological and epistemological frameworks developed by Indigenous peoples, not as mere “alternative philosophies,” but as systems of thought that articulate fundamental questions about how humans know and exist in the world. These frameworks offer insights that Western hegemonic philosophy has often overlooked or failed to fully engage. Accordingly, the symposium highlighted and advanced the relevance of Indigenous philosophy by centering and amplifying Indigenous voices.

Our keynote speaker (James Maffie) and invited speakers (Getty Lustila, Nathalie Avalos, and Zenón Depaz) are specialists on Mesoamerican Philosophy, Native American Philosophy and Andean Philosophy. They emphasize holistic knowledge systems, promote an intercultural view of the world, develop cross-continental dialogue, critique Western philosophy hegemony, and explore ancestral sacredness, which reflects land-based epistemology, ethics and regeneration of relations to land as kinship. This symposium contributed to academic debate globally on philosophy by challenging the “Western canon” and endowing Indigenous thought as a primary field of inquiry rather than a secondary “folk” tradition.

This event was co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities at Temple, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Temple, the Center for Latin American and Latinxs Studies at Penn, Wolf Humanities Center at Penn, Native American and Indigenous Studies at Penn, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Penn, the Department of Anthropology at Penn, the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication of Annenberg School for Communication at Penn, Dispossession in the Americas Penn-Mellon Just Future Initiative, Minorities and Philosophy, and the Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium (GPPC).

This event constituted a powerful and enriching learning experience in Indigenous philosophy for all participants, including speakers, organizers, and attendees. As Dr. James Maffie noted, he “enjoyed the event immensely” and “learned much from the speakers and discussions”. Dr. Getty observed that it is rare to attend a gathering that engages him both as a scholar and as a person, and that invites him to show up as his full self.  Similarly, Dr. Natalie remarked that she “genuinely enjoyed each talk” and “learned” so much from her esteemed colleagues, highlighting the engaging nature of the roundtable discussion and the overall excellence of the event’s curation. Finally, Dr. Zenón Depaz stated in Spanish, “Fue muy grato y vital compartir este tiempo con ustedes. Obtuve muchas sugerencias de todo lo expuesto y conversado, que tendré muy en cuenta”, emphasizing that it was truly a pleasure and a privilege to participate and that he gained numerous valuable suggestions from the presentations and discussions, which he will carefully consider.

Members of the organizing committee and participants expressed deep appreciation for the symposium and its impact. They highlighted how meaningful it was to create a space that supports those studying Indigenous Philosophy as both scholars and individuals. They emphasized the event’s central aim of reflecting philosophically on and through Indigenous voices, thanking attendees for their warmth, humility, and kindness and inviting them to continue building a Ñuqanchik, a Quechua term meaning an inclusive “us.” Participants noted that they “learned so much” and that “the talk was great,” and one attendee praised the symposium as “amazing,” describing the talks as highly engaging and urging continued exploration of Indigenous Philosophy as a response to the challenges of a fractured Western society. Other participants described the event as “a historic milestone in the most Eurocentric sphere of Western academia.”